Lexington starts pilot program for composting

Lexington has begun a pilot composting program with about 400 homes and a few selected businesses in the Clays Mill Road area to mix food waste with yard waste at the city's compost facility on Haley Pike.

"We're just doing a small-scale program at this point, to see how food waste impacts the final product," said Steve Feese, director of the Division of Waste Management.

"We're early on in the process," he said, but the experiment has not presented problems.

For a "no waste" picnic at Transylvania University on Monday, the city provided special containers for composting. But that was a one-time, special event.

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However, Angela Dossett, the university's sustainability coordinator, said Transylvania has asked to be included in the next phase of the city's pilot composting program.

In the meantime, the university will partner with Seedleaf to compost kitchen scraps starting in October.

Food waste makes up 12 percent of material sent to the city landfill, Feese said. "As a city if we move to zero waste, it is a component you have to look at. We are looking at ways of reducing that," he said.

Several West Coast cities, including Seattle; Portland, Ore., and San Jose. Calif., have food-waste compost programs, Feese said.